Old A&P here. My buddy has a -12 and I helped him drill thru the firewall and the new nosegear attach plate yesterday. We're both too old and lazy to get on the floor to hold the drill bushings against the firewall while drilling. We came up with a stratagem to make it easier. We got a piece of ~5/16" I. D. aluminum tube that was about an inch shorter than the distance from the drill chuck to the base of the bushing, slipped it over the drill, then put the bushing on the end of the drill. Now we could use the tube to hold the bushing in the existing hole in the bracket and firewall while sitting in the seat. Works on both the #30 drill and the 1/4" drill. We vacuumed after drilling the #30 hole and the 1/4" hole to get the chips out of the hole so the bushing would fit properly. We also put wet paper towels on the floor inside the console to minimize how much swarf* stays down there so vacuuming was easier.
I hope this helps, you RV-12 folks have enough extra work already. Great, sweet airplane, though, totally worth it.
*It's a real word... go look it up.
I hope this helps, you RV-12 folks have enough extra work already. Great, sweet airplane, though, totally worth it.
*It's a real word... go look it up.